Hunter Greene struck out 11 and allowed one hit over six shutout innings and Tyler Stephenson homered twice and drove in four runs to lead the Cincinnati Reds past the visiting San Francisco Giants 6-4 on Saturday night.
Greene (8-4) picked up where he left off in July, when the right-hander allowed just one run over four starts and 27 innings.
Jonathan India crushed a 417-foot homer to the upper deck in left, and Stuart Fairchild drilled a line drive homer off the left field foul pole for the Reds, who were no-hit the night before by Blake Snell.
Alexis Diaz earned his 22nd save in 24 chances despite allowing a 423-foot solo homer to Matt Chapman to open the ninth.
San Francisco starter Kyle Harrison (6-5) could not repeat the complete-game shutouts posted by Logan Webb and Snell in the club’s previous two starts.
Stephenson put the Reds on the board with one out in the second with a solo homer to the opposite field in right.
With two runners on in the fourth, Stephenson drilled his 13th homer, a shot to the grass berm in center, to put Cincinnati up 5-0. It was Stephenson’s second two-homer game in three weeks, having done so against visiting Colorado on July 11 for his first career multi-homer game.
Fairchild’s two-out blast knocked Harrison from the game with two outs in the fourth. Harrison was charged with all six runs on six hits over his 3 2/3 innings.
Greene didn’t allow a hit until Michael Conforto singled to right with two outs in the fourth.
With Greene out of the game to start the seventh, the Giants began their rally off lefty reliever Justin Wilson. Chapman lined a double over the head of TJ Friedl in center. Friedl mishandled the ball on the warning track to allow Chapman to reach third, and shortstop Elly De La Cruz’s relay throw landed in the Giants’ dugout to complete the “Little League” home run.
Conforto then followed with a conventional home run, his 11th of the season, off Wilson.
The Giants closed to within three in the eighth off reliever Tony Santillan when pinch hitter Jerar Encarnacion belted a homer to right, his first since September 2022 with Miami.
–Field Level Media
